Update at 9:30 a.m.: As you can see in the video above, KXAS-Channel 5′s Ray Villeda interviewed Minh Nguyen last night. And in the interview, she says Tommy Simmons threatened to kill her if she didn’t him how to get from N. Central Expressway to IH-45; she says he warned her, “I cut you, you die.”

Update at 6 p.m.: Our Tasha Tsiaperas is at Dallas PD headquarters, where Dallas Police Deputy Chief Sheryl Scott confirmed the kidnapping took place in front of the Macy’s at NorthPark. Scott also said Dallas Police weren’t informed about the stolen car and kidnapping till 4 a.m., when Nacogdoches Police called to say they had Nguyen, who recounted the kidnapping. Both Tommy Eugene Simmons and Michelle Jenene Tortora are each being held in Nacogdoches on a $282,000 bond.

Scott also said that upon his release from the Preston E. Smith Unit in Lamesa yesterday, he was given a bus ticket to Nacogdoches — but he decided to stop off in Dallas instead. Lt. Tim Goerner told WFAA-Channel 8 he got off at the downtown Dallas Greyhound Station at 205 S. Lamar. From Channel 8:

Goerner said he met Tortora at Reunion Station and spent the day together. That was the first time they met, he said. They traveled to NorthPark Center that evening, spotting the Toyota Sienna in the parking lot. The lieutenant said they waited for Nguyen’s friend to walk into Macy’s and then stole her van.

Update at 5:13 p.m.: NorthPark Center spokesperson Kristen Gibbins just sent the following statement:

Tommy Eugene Simmons and Michelle Jenene Tortora are in custody, accused of kidnapping a woman from NorthPark Center Wednesday

NorthPark Center is aware of an incident that allegedly occurred in a Dallas parking facility that resulted in two suspects being taken into custody in Nacogdoches. NorthPark Center is cooperating with authorities in their investigation. As always, the safety of our shoppers, merchants, and employees continues to be our number one priority.

Original item at 2:19 p.m.: According to Dallas Police, on Wednesday night 42-year-old Minh Nguyen and her friend, 40-year-old Vuong Tran, went to NorthPark Center to see a movie. Tran drove them to the mall in her tan 2009 Toyota Sienna. At some point, though, Tran and Nguyen split up, and Nguyen stayed in the van — with the keys. As police would later put it, the two friends were going to catch up later. But that didn’t happen.

At some point, a woman approached Nguyen in the NorthPark parking lot and began to make small talk. She was just a diversion. Because while they spoke, a man walked up — and, according to Dallas Police, punched Nguyen in the face. At which point, per DPD, the man told her to “do as she was told or he would kill her.”

The man — later identified as 29-year-old Tommy Eugene Simmons, who had just been released from prison hours earlier — told Nguyen to get in the back of the van. With 18-year-old Michelle Jenene Tortora in the front, Simmons drove the van to Nacogdoches. And to make sure Nguyen didn’t call anyone, the couple tossed the 42-year-old’s phone out of the van.

Finally, around 2 this morning, they reached their destination: this Shell station in Nacogdoches. KLTV-Channel 7 in Tyler says the couple “let her go”; Dallas Police say the 42-year-old “got away in Nacogdoches and called the police.” The TV station reports that “Simmons and Tortora left the scene but police were able to find them and arrest them”; Dallas Police say, “Nacogdoches Police located the listed vehicle with the suspects still inside.”

Either way, the two were taken into custody in Nacogdoches, where, according to Nacogdoches County Sheriff Thomas Kerss’ office, Simmons has been charged with first-degree aggravated kidnapping, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle (a state jail felony), burglary of a vehicle and theft. Tortora faces charges of aggravated kidnapping and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice says Simmons was released from the Preston E. Smith Unit in Lamesa only yesterday, after having served a three-year sentence for robbery and credit card abuse in Nacogdoches.

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